Gordon Birtwistle & Burnley Liberal Democrats

The BNP’s entire membership list has been published on an Internet web site. This list appears to include all Burnley BNP members, including home addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses, and in some cases information about members’ jobs. It is rumoured that the publication follows a split at the top of the BNP nationally.

A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said, “Most people are aware that the BNP could barely run a bath, let alone a council, but this level of incompetence is astonishing. Their failure to control such sensitive data will cause many of their Burnley members to give up and accept the sensible alternatives available from the mainstream parties in Burnley. There is something for everyone without going to the BNP’s incompetent extremes.”

The publication of the BNP’s membership list follows a series of Labour government failures to protect data in its care. 

The Lib Dem spokesman added, “The BNP would clearly be just as bad as the Labour government at losing information. The publication of this membership list reflects the same risks we see in the government’s ID card scheme. We think the scheme should be scrapped and the money spent on police instead.”